1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network printing technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a network printing technology is being actively developed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-271347 discloses a network printing system in which printing is performed at a printer connected to a network such as Internet.
FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram for explaining a conventional network printing system. The network printing system in FIG. 24 is configured as an extranet environment in which an intranet environment 200 is connected to another intranet environment 300 via a network 400. In such a configuration, it is possible to carry out a print job at a printer arranged in the intranet environment 300 by giving a printing instruction from a host computer arranged in the intranet environment 200, and vice versa.
However, during a printing process, there is a possibility that an error such as a paper-out condition, a paper jam condition, or a toner empty condition occurs in the printer thereby causing interruption in the printing process. If the host computer is not notified about such an error, then there is a possibility that the problem is left unattended.
Internet quality affects reliability of the printing in the conventional network printing system that is configured as the extranet environment. For example, if the transmission-line conditions are poor, network delay and/or network disconnection may occur frequently. Frequent network delays and network disconnections result in frequent network reconnections. Data re-transmission occurring at each network reconnection disadvantageously increases the load on the server.